Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Kwong, Larry Morton, and Peter Lohse.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ann, Larry, Peter. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I founded InnovaTID in 2013 after working in antiviral drug development for over 25 years and bringing an innovative drug all the way from discovery through development to the clinic, regulatory approval and commercial launch. I was really fortunate to be able to work on all the different stages of creating a drug. The drug I worked on, Incivek (VX-950, telaprevir), like most really innovative drugs, died along the way and I helped generate the data to bring it back through midnight projects (aka skunk works). The experience emphasized for me the reality that it is not technology or a snazzy platform that “makes a drug”, it innovative thinking, teamwork, hard work, good leadership and good luck.
No one can make a drug by themselves, there are too many different disciplines that are required and it takes place over 15 years on average. However, many new companies are started by people, usually academic researchers who have no idea how drugs are developed. InnovaTID stands for “Innovative thinking for Innovative Drugs” and one of the things we do provide integrated teams of consultants or individual consultants as needed to help clients develop and actualize their vision for a new drug, inspired by their scientific research or interest in a new molecule or technology. InnovaTID consultants have deep industry expertise to help our clients to strategize and design a path to develop therapies that meet the needs of patients and markets. InnovaTID’s services enable clients to bridge the gap between basic research and commercial drugs, to ensure that new discoveries benefit patients and generate a return on investment.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been smooth because we started from scratch- self-funding ourselves without deep VC pockets. However, it has been fun building the business, learning as we go and helping people along the way. One of our major challenges is most people who start out in industry, whether they are a technician in the lab, straight out of a post-doc, or are an academic professor- none of them have any idea how drugs are created and they don’t know what they don’t know. Creating the market need has been a struggle. We do a lot of education and we do a lot of free consulting to land jobs.
Please tell us about InnovaTID.
InnovaTID provides strategic and tactical expertise across all phases of drug discovery and development. Our approach is multidisciplinary: we draw from a broad range of expertise in science, medicine, regulatory and manufacturing. We provide the following services to the academic, pharma, biotech and investor communities in three therapeutic areas (antiviral, antibacterial and anticancer):
Research Strategy Design
– We help develop discovery, nonclinical and clinical development strategies
– We work with you to identify a path and a decision tree with predetermined milestones to advance research and development
– We will identify capabilities needed to support your overall program
– We provide technical and scientific expert advice
Science/Tech Analysis & Evaluation
– We can independently assess the scientific rationale and experimental results
– We can help prioritize research and development opportunities
– We perform product positioning and competitive landscape analysis
– We are providing litigation support in intellectual property disputes
Investment Strategy Design
– Develop strategies to build assets into attractive investment opportunities
– Create an intellectual property strategy
External Resource Management
– We leverage external and collaborative relationships with partners, including CROs, to assist your discovery programs
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Catching tadpoles and caterpillars and watching them grow into frogs and beautiful moths and releasing them.
Contact Info:
- Address: InnovaTID
125 Cambridge Park Drive
Suite 301
Cambridge, MA 02140 - Website: www.http://innovatid.org
- Phone: 617-500-4320
- Email: ann.kwong@innovatid.org
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